I started working at this place as a cashier just a couple weeks ago and then of fucking course this happens. Last Tuesday as I was leaving work my boss told me he’d call me tomorrow with the coming week’s schedule. He didn’t, but the online scheduling app was updated the next day with all my shifts for the next two weeks.

So I figured that was just signifying the end of my training or whatever and that they’d finally slotted me into the schedule. But today when I looked at the schedule again I saw all of my hours were gone.

I called this morning to find out what the fuck was going on and my boss told me he thought I had quit because I didn’t show up to one unscheduled shift he called me in for last Thursday morning. I must’ve missed his calls that day, he says he left two voicemails but my phone must’ve eaten them because I didn’t see those either.

I was profusely apologetic over the phone, but he told me that he’d already hired two new employees. He didn’t outright fire me, he said I’d be “on call” from now on, but this is a shitty seasonal job, I don’t have high hopes I will be hearing back.

This is fucking bullshit. I had to buy the fucking uniform myself. Now I’m back at square one, and I have not the slightest inkling how the hell I’m supposed to go the rest of my life continuously subjecting myself to the dehumanization and humiliation of job searching all to work minimum wage for asshole small business tyrants like this guy and my previous employer.

The cherry on top is that once again I’m pretty sure I didn’t work long enough to qualify for unemployment payments, same thing happened at my last job where I was laid off via ghosting. I can never quite say it enough, but fuck this piece of shit country.

  • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.net
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    11 hours ago

    Sounds like “constructive dismissal”, which means “technically not fired”, which means “of course I’m not stealing officer, I’m an employee”.

  • gramxi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    14 hours ago

    I hate bosses (in general) that refuse to text something that might be urgent. Why do they insist on voice shit for something that’s like 2 sentences max? These fuckers just playing around with our lives.

  • blame [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    17 hours ago

    What is the point of the shift app if they can just arbitrarily add shifts and call you at whatever time they feel like…

    also do these things not have escalation plans so a worker knows they might need to cover for a shift?

    • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      13 hours ago

      What is the point of the shift app if they can just arbitrarily add shifts and call you at whatever time they feel like…

      Modern work culture feels like one of those fucked up psychology experiments where they emotionally destroy animals.

    • cosecantphi [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      17 hours ago

      That’s what I was thinking. I figured I could stop paying attention to my phone because he had put me on the schedule, implying my next shift would be the next one on the actual schedule, right?

  • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    18 hours ago

    I must’ve missed his calls that day, he says he left two voicemails but my phone must’ve eaten them because I didn’t see those either.

    I’m calling it, your boss is lying and was just looking for an excuse to fire you.

    • cosecantphi [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      17 hours ago

      To be clear, he did actually call me that day and I missed it. It was just the voicemails that didn’t go through for whatever reason.

      • 30_to_50_Feral_PAWGs [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        15 hours ago

        My favorite is when they call and instead of the call going to voicemail, it goes to a voice assistant screening service because it’s an unrecognized number, and then they proceed to blurt out a bunch of shit because they think it’s voicemail. Meanwhile, all you get is a shitty transcription that gets nuked after you read it. Bonus points if it’s full of tech jargon that the transcription service can’t parse.

        My second favorite is when my voice mail inbox is “full” because apparently my cell provider won’t let me have more than 10 messages in there at a time, in spite of nearly all of them being car warranty or student loan scams that I just haven’t deleted yet. It’s fucking bullshit that blocked/reported numbers can still leave voicemails on some carriers.

  • gila@lemm.ee
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    16 hours ago

    Someone else didn’t show up on Thursday, manager called you to cover their shift and you didn’t answer, they got pissed that the shift wasn’t covered. The multiple calls/voicemails are probably just their embellishment to justify descheduling you. They’re probably under-resourced and stressed about black friday prep, but that’s in no way your fault.

    If you need the shifts though, they’ll almost certainly be there for you over the next week or two if you’re available on short notice.